Archive for February 22, 2013

When my husband started his business back in 2009 he registered for a Capital One business credit card. We use Chase for all of our personal credit needs, but we received an application from Capital One shortly after incorporating and decided to complete the form without investigating other options.

That was our first mistake. We were approved for a credit card with a limit of $1000. Being a new company the low credit limit probably makes sense, but let me tell you that $1000 does not go very far when paying for everyday business needs.

By the time we charged recurring monthly bills like Internet, phone and fax services we had only a few hundred dollars left to spend. Add on a few employee lunches, staples for the office like paper and printing supplies and we found ourselves reaching the max long before the month’s end.

I figured this was an easy problem to solve, so I called Capital One and asked for a higher credit limit. The kind customer service representative told me I could only request credit once a year and only after a full year had passed since the last time I requested it. When the year finally came and went Capital One increased my limit by a measly $500. A year after that I called again and received another $500 increase.

Last week when I called to ask for yet another change to my credit limit I was told to hold on the line while the request was being processed. A kind customer service representative explained that my credit would be pulled and that I would receive a response within 30 seconds or so. I waited and was told my request was denied.

A week later Capital One sent a letter informing me that they are having problem with their systems and cannot increase credit limits for any business accounts at this time. From the looks of the letter though it seems a credit request was initiated. So thanks Capital One for making a hit to my credit score even though you had no intentions of issuing me a higher limit.

Oh, I also forgot to mention that Capital One’s answer to my credit limit problems is to continually pay off my credit card mid-cycle. The customer service representative told me to check my credit card activity every week. If I get close to reaching the limit I should pay off the balance to free up the credit. Umm, thank you, but no I do not want to check my balance on my credit card every few days to make certain my card isn’t declined when I dine with employees or potential clients.

I thought I was angry enough with Capital One, but when I received this month’s bill I was really upset. It seems we incurred a $39 credit limit fee for charging above and beyond our limit. Hello? What did you say? If you give me a limit then how can I go over it? Well it seems Capital One allowed us to charge $40 worth of sandwiches which put us over and above our allotted limit for the month. Then they charged us a $39 fee for spending too much. Do you think my husband would have paid $79, ($40 for the sandwiches and an additional $39 for the fee), for a bunch of sandwiches? Um, no, he would have pulled out a different credit card or paid with cash.

After speaking to another kind customer service representative I was informed that you have to disable the credit limit override. Otherwise Capital One will let you spend more than your allotted amount, but will immediately assess a fee for doing so.

After all of this I decided that I was finished with Capital One. I contacted Chase, completed a form for a new business account, received immediate approval and a new credit card arrived in the mail less than a week later. My new Chase limit $8000.

So I am happy to say good riddance to Capital One! Although your customer service representatives have always been kind your services are abominable.